5 Reasons You Should Skip the iOS 7 Jailbreak

The iOS 7 jailbreak release surprised users and developers this weekend as it arrived with questions, a few issues and enough drama for a weekday movie.

While millions of users are eagerly waiting for an iOS 7 jailbreak, this hurried release brings more reasons than normal to skip the iOS 7 jailbreak — at least for the time being.

The iOS 7 jailbreak is free and available for any device running iOS 7, including the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini Retina, which are the latest iOS devices from Apple. The iOS 7 jailbreak from the Evad3rs is an untethered jailbreak which means it will not stop working if you need to reboot your phone away from a computer. The iOS 7 jailbreak tool works on iOS 7 through iOS 7.0.4 and some users report that it also works on iOS 7.1 betas.

Here are several reasons not to use the iOS 7 jailbreak at this time.

While many users love the freedom an iOS 7 jailbreak promises, for many users who are simply interested in jailbreaking their iPhone or iPad, there are some reasons to skip the iOS 7 jailbreak, or to at least wait for a future version before jailbreaking.

The iOS 7 Jailbreak is Buggy

The drama surrounding the iOS 7 jailbreak release hints at a rushed release that may not have been tested as much as past releases. If everything works right the iOS 7 jailbreak tool will deliver the jailbreak in about five minutes according to the Evad3rs.

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For many users the iOS 7 jailbreak tool, called evasi0n is working without issues, but for others they end up stuck on an Apple logo, which does not brick the iPhone or iPad, but does require users to put the device into DFU mode and restore from a backup. Some users complain that iTunes does not immediately see the iPhone and that there is no serial number showing, but again most of these issues are fixable with time.

The iOS 7 jailbreak is not perfected.

If you are an experienced jailbreak user or even a user who has the time to troubleshoot and work around these problems, don’t let this reason get in the way of an iOS 7 jailbreak.

But if you are an average user who is interested in the iOS 7 jailbreak, and don’t have time to troubleshoot any problems while getting ready to travel for the holidays you may at least want to wait for a new version with less bugs or time until you have time to troubleshoot.

iOS 7 Cydia Support is Lacking

The iOS 7 Cydia version included is not the latest from the creator.

The iOS 7 jailbreak installs an unofficial version of Cydia, that doesn’t include the fixes that the creator Jay Freeman has been working on. The iOS 7 Cydia version installed with the evasi0n jailbreak is not likely to deliver the same experience it has in the past. At this point it looks like Freeman continues to work on a new iOS 7 Cydia version, and based on his tweets it may require a new iOS 7 jailbreak release from the Evad3rs to get it up and running.

This means they are going to have to push a new version of their untether to fix this oversight before I can push newer builds of Substrate.

Couple the Cydia issues with a limited amount of iOS 7 Cydia apps and tweaks that are available and there is even less reason to jailbreak immediately. While there are roughly three dozen working iOS 7 jailbreak apps and about a dozen more that are partially working themes are not yet working and apps like DashBoardX, Auxo, Zephyr and many others are not available at this time.

Jailbreaking Can Bring Instability

No matter how good the iOS 7 jailbreak tool is, installing apps that are unsigned and tweaking iOS 7 can lead to instability. While there are many users who run jailbreaks without any issues, we typically experience more reboots and other small crashes while jailbroken than while running a stock version of iOS.

The iOS 7 jailbreak may add instability.

We have not lost data due to any of these, but on the iOS 6 jailbreak while combining certain apps we experienced crashes that prevented us from using the phone for 20-30 seconds — often at the time we needed to use the phone and experienced poor battery life.

If you have the time and patience to deal with these quirks, then by all means jailbreak. If you don’t want to lose the reliability and ease of use that you get out of the box you may want to skip the iOS 7 jailbreak.

Waiting for Updates

If you choose to use the iOS 7 jailbreak and jump in you will need to avoid the official iOS updates like the iOS 7.1 update that Apple is already working on. With a jailbreak that delivers many, many new features this is a small price to pay and traditionally the jailbreak comes out right after a major iOS update from Apple, but this time it’s different.

You may find yourself waiting for iOS 7.1 if you jailbreak now.

Apple is working on iOS 7.1 and with the fast jailbreak release there may be time for Apple to patch the exploit used by the Evad3rs before the official iOS 7.1 release arrives. If you like to run the latest software from Apple and are looking forward to iOS in the Car you may want to avoid the jailbreak for now.

You’re Using a Work iPhone or iPad

The simplest reason not to use the iOS 7 jailbreak is if you are using a work provided jailbreak. While you can always un-jailbreak the iPhone if you need support from Apple or simply not mention the jailbreak, employers may not be as easy to deal with.

Employers don’t look kindly on jailbreaking work devices.

Many employers that provide a work phone expect users to keep it in a specific condition and will not appreciate users circumventing Apple’s security to perform a jailbreak that could allow the user to install software that is potentially less secure. Some services claim to offer a way for employers to check if a device is jailbroken. Unless your employer asks you to jailbreak, save it for your personal iPhone or iPad.

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We’ll soon be sharing a list of reasons why you should jailbreak.

Comments

I saw this comming long ago!! This is why I gave up jail breaking than iPhone issues,crashes etc. the iPhone alone is a issue itself glad I’m great with my Xperia Z1 and NO ISSUES:))) apple makes a great phone but lousy software since iPhone 5 when Steve sadly passed apple went bad